Why missed deadlines matter when managing multiple legal entities

Different types of legal entities come with different filing deadlines: Estimated quarterly tax payments are due on the 15th of January, March, June and September. W-2s had to be filed by Jan. 31. S-Corp. and partnership taxes were due on March 15. And taxes for corporations are due on April 15 — along with everyone else’s.

That’s not a lot to manage for one legal entity, or even a handful. But what about if your entities number in the hundreds?

We know from working with entity managers across the country that the pressure is high — not only because you’re fielding requests daily for information about membership, jurisdictions and employer identification numbers, but also because missed deadlines can cost your company serious money.

Typically, the IRS can charge as much as 25% of your unpaid taxes as a late fee. That may not seem like much on a single entity, but try multiplying that out over dozens of them. Those costs add up fast — and put your job suddenly at risk.

We started EntityKeeper because we knew the pain of managing multiple legal entities. Our roots are in commercial real estate, and as our company grew to encompass dozens of legal entities, we came to realize our missteps in the management of those entities were not the result of bad hires or subpar systems. Instead, they were pain points companies like ours experienced every day. We saw the potential of technology to solve those problems and reduce the potential for costly errors, and we built it. The result is EntityKeeper.

We now serve two kinds of customers: the company housing multiple legal entities, and the person tasked with managing them. The company is first and foremost because, let’s face it, missed deadlines impact the bottom line. When you’re forced to pay money in overdue taxes or fines, that money can’t be spent on new projects, new hires, system upgrades or new investments. At the end of the day, unexpected costs hinder growth, and we can’t stand the thought of that.

We are also fiercely committed to serving our users — the men and women who are responsible with managing the entities on a daily basis and who have spent too many years toiling away with burdensome spreadsheets and minute books. Those users — paralegals, office managers and other professionals — are very often the lifeblood of the business. The work they do is critical to overall operations, and we realized, if we could make their lives easier, businesses would benefit as a result.

So why do missed deadlines matter? It’s a matter of finances, of course, but it’s also a matter of operational excellence. If your internal systems don’t support the growth and success of your business, your business need an upgrade. If your people lack the tools they need to do their jobs well, you owe them an upgrade.

Think of it this way: It’s like paying for accounting software and then paying an accountant. You need both the system and the professional to manage the money for your business. The same holds true with your entities.